Ldhteenmdki-Uutela, Anu --- "Human Nature vs. Food System Transitions" [2021] IntJlRRuralRLawP 3; (2021) 9(1) International Journal of Regional, Rural and Remote (RRR) Law & Policy, Article 3

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International Journal of Regional, Rural and Remote (RRR) Law and Policy

[ISSN: 1839-745X]

[Formerly known as International Journal of Rural Law and Policy]

Rural American Jails: Rising Demands, Tight Money, and Limited Options

Rick Ruddell, ^[1]

G. Larry Mays ^[2]

William Sturgeon^[3]

There are about 1,500 U.S. jails with fewer than 100 beds, and many of these stand-alone facilities are in sparsely populated counties. As these rural jails are out-of-sight and out-of-mind, few correctional scholars are examining the operations of these places and these agencies are largely ignored unless a disaster, mistake, or act of misconduct is reported by the media. In this commentary we identify 20 challenges rural jail administrators and sheriffs are confronting. Many of these issues were identified a century ago and a key challenge for these jail administrators is to formulate solutions to these long-term entrenched problems to provide humane treatment for the people incarcerated in these places. We contend the solutions to these challenges are dependent upon increases in funding and reimagining or reforming existing arrangements in rural justice systems where counties are relying upon small, stand-alone facilities to hold pretrial and sentenced populations.

Corresponding author: Rick Ruddell. [e-mail]

Rural American Jails: Rising Demands, Tight Money, and Limited Options

Incarceration rates are rising throughout rural America and many of the people admitted into the 1,500 small jails in the countryside are suffering from mental and physical health problems, disabilities, and addictions; and women are now accounting for a greater share of the jail population growth.^[4] These challenges are taking place throughout the countryside and the least populated counties are often experiencing the greatest rise in jail incarceration rates due to high crime rates associated with an opioid epidemic.^[5] These problems are compounded as jail budgets are being stretched thin due to deteriorating economic conditions, job losses, and an eroding rural tax base.^[6] Because these small jail operations are out-of-sight they seldom come to the attention of the media, government policymakers, advocacy organizations, or university researchers who are instead focused on what is happening in the justice systems in urban America. When these rural jails do capture our attention, it is often after they become front-page news following a disaster, mistake, or act of misconduct.

Except for the integrated jail-prison systems in six states and the District of Columbia, most American jails are stand-alone facilities dependent on local funding and operated by elected sheriffs. Rural jails often serve as the center of a county’s justice system and the demands on these places are increasing.^[7] The Vera Institute of Justice found, for instance, that the rural jail population increased by 26 percent between 2013 and 2020, whereas jail populations in urban America decreased by 22 percent.^[8] Many of the challenges confronting jail operations, such as reliance upon local funding, the difficulty of recruiting and retaining professional staff, and managing special needs residents were identified a century ago^[9] but sheriffs, who operate most of these facilities, have often resisted attempts at reform.^[10]

The presence of such a large number of stand-alone and locally run correctional arrangements that are operated by elected officials is a distinctively American approach to detaining arrestees and persons serving sentences of less than one year. Another factor differentiating these correctional facilities from those in other developed nations is that universal health care is not provided by the state or federal government, and jails are responsible for paying for the medical and psychological care of their inmates, which is a costly undertaking. These small jails are often located in rural areas and in this commentary we use the terms rural and small interchangeably, and define these facilities as having a rated capacity of fewer than 100 beds.

Most correctional stakeholders agree that American jails require reforms, and local and state government officials, activists, and advocates for jail inmates have called for reimagining or reinventing local corrections.^[11] However, there is little consensus on what practices should be reformed or who should pay for these proposed changes. In what follows, we take a closer look at the operational obstacles created by the stand-alone nature of rural facilities, the economic and political environments in which they operate, and the characteristics of their populations.

Rural American Jails

Jails are busy places, and although annual admissions dropped by almost one-quarter between 2008 and 2019, over 10 million people are admitted to U.S. facilities every year.^[12] When it comes to local corrections, most of the public’s attention is focused on what happens in big city jails that hold thousands of individuals. Yet, Zeng and Minton reports there are about 1,500 jails that hold fewer than 100 inmates, and on any given day there are almost 60,000 people behind bars in these places.^[13]

A review of the extant literature shows that jail scholarship is relegated to the margins of correctional research, and while this topic was more popular in the 1980s it seems to have fallen out of favor. As a result, there have been comparatively few books or articles published on this topic between 2010 and 2021. There is even less scholarly interest in what happens in rural jails. Kowalski and colleagues say that “the bulk of research has ignored jails in rural locations despite smaller jails demonstrating higher jail rates in recent years.”^[14] Not only are rural incarceration rates rising, but this is happening in an environment that is culturally, demographically, economically, and politically different than suburban or urban America. This has created a distinctive set of challenges that local governments must confront, and they are described in the following section.

Operational Challenges Confronting Small Jails

One of the best ways to learn about jail operations is to ask sheriffs and jail administrators about their experiences and perceptions. Ruddell and Mays summarize the findings of four such studies and observe that irrespective of the methods used, the respondents who participated, or the year in which these studies took place, jail administrators indicate that funding, crowding, and workforce concerns were key priorities, regardless of the size of their operations. Inmate health—and to a lesser extent misconduct and violence—were also identified as important issues.^[15] In addition, respondents in these studies indicated that limitations in their physical plants, such as antiquated designs, crowding, space limitations, or inadequate technological capability were problematic issues.

The findings summarized by Ruddell and Mays were unsurprising given the problems identified in jails reported throughout the early 20^th century^[16] and updated by scholars throughout the 1980s and 1990s.^[17] Although jail conditions have improved, the challenges their administrators are confronting today are persistent and entrenched problems defying simple solutions. Many of these problems are interconnected and their origins can be traced back to historical and political arrangements including operating stand-alone facilities at the county level administered by elected sheriffs.

There are two points to consider when thinking about the challenges confronting local corrections. The first is that sheriffs or jail administrators—whether they are managing small or large operations—have little control over the types or numbers of persons who end up in their facilities. In many respects jails have become a default mechanism for the inability of social and health-related systems to respond to the unmet needs of community populations, and this has long-been recognized as a problem.^[18] Individuals in crisis—and often suffering from substance abuse problems—are arrested and jailed because there are no alternatives, and this challenge is more pronounced in rural counties lacking 24/7 health and social services. The second key point is that jail administrators are competing for funding with other county services. Most taxpayers, however, would rather see their dollars funding services for more sympathetic populations, such as children or the elderly, instead of persons accused of committing crimes. The public seldom considers that today’s jail inmate is tomorrow’s neighbor, and it is in everybody’s interest if those people are returned to the community less damaged than when admitted to jail.

The following section briefly identifies 20 challenges affecting contemporary jail management. With respect to methodology, we started with the issues identified by Ruddell and Mays and expanded on those factors after an extensive review of the extant jail literature. The presentation of these issues is admittedly brief and each of these topics could be expanded to an entire book chapter. Our intent in writing this commentary is to identify these topics to establish a starting point for subsequent research and debate. Our hope is our work inspires reforms in rural justice systems to improve the care of over a million Americans who pass through these places every year.

Twenty Challenges Confronting Rural Jails

High admissions of people with mental health and substance abuse problems

Jails are one of the few agencies operating around the clock in rural counties and many of the people admitted into these facilities would be managed by mental health, juvenile, or other social service agencies in urban American. In their summary of jail populations Ruddell, Mays, and Winfree found they are ten times more likely to suffer from substance abuse problems than members of the public.^[19] These problems may be more prevalent in the countryside and Raggio, Hoffmann, and Kopak found that almost three-quarters of a rural jail population were assessed as having a severe substance abuse disorder.^[20]

Ruddell, Mays, and Winfree also report that jail residents were five times more likely to have a mental health problem than members of the public.^[21] Torrey and colleagues found, for instance, that there are ten times the number of people with severe mental illnesses (SMI) in prisons and jails than in state hospitals.^[22] Like substance abuse, the prevalence of people with SMI may be higher in rural populations. One study found that over one-third of the people admitted to rural Michigan jails had a SMI, compared with one-fifth of urban or suburban residents.^[23] Those Michigan researchers also found that people with SMI spent, on average, 14 days longer in custody than those without a SMI.^[24] One reason for the high prevalence of these inmates is that “police often engage in what they call ‘mercy bookings’: arresting someone for a minor offense because they believe jail is the only place that person will have access to food, a place to sleep, and basic medical care.”^[25]

Using statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute of Mental Health, we calculated that jail residents are over three times more likely to commit suicide than members of the general population ^[26] and residents in small jails are six times more likely to commit suicide than inmates in the nation’s 50 largest facilities.^[27] Altogether we find that the psychological health of rural jail inmates creates numerous challenges for jail administrators. As most rural jails are too small to operate specialized units, inmates with SMI are mixed with the general population and this elevates their risks of victimization from other residents.^[28] In addition, because these stand-alone facilities are not part of a larger network, they cannot send these individuals to facilities with the capacity to better respond to their unmet needs.

High admissions of people with physical health problems

Mental and physical health conditions are often interrelated, and prior research shows that jail residents are likely to suffer from a range of physical health problems, including disabilities, histories of having infectious diseases and the presence of HIV/AIDS.^[29] These health problems affect jail mortality rates, and about 500 jail inmates die from illnesses every year.^[30] In a national study of jail mortality for the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics published in 2012, Noonan reports that the mortality rate in facilities of 50 or fewer beds was twice the national average.^[31] Furthermore, Weidner and Schultz found that counties with high incarceration rates are associated with premature deaths and self-reported poor health, and these effects were pronounced in rural and Southern jails.^[32] These problems have become more evident in rural jails since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic^[33] and the responses to the pandemic have been criticized as jails in some states have high infection rates.^[34]

Rising incarceration rates

Rural incarceration rates have been rising and Kang-Brown and Subramanian found that the smallest counties had the greatest growth in jail populations.^[35] The Vera Institute of Justice estimates the rural jail incarceration rate is now more than twice that of urban counties. That outcome is due to holding a larger proportion of pretrial inmates and detaining them longer.^[36] Rachael Riley and colleagues point out that increased rural poverty rates were associated with high jail incarceration rates and attributed this finding to a lack of diversion or drug treatment programs that might reduce jail populations.^[37]

Reliance upon local funding

Small facilities often have a similar set of operational issues as large jails, but few have the resources needed to address these concerns. Almost all the challenges reported in this commentary are related to inadequate funding and it is unlikely that jail administrators and sheriffs will be able to overcome this problem given the stand-alone nature of their operations. In contrast, six states—Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont—and the District of Columbia have integrated jail-prison systems. In these jurisdictions the costs of pretrial detention and short-term incarceration are borne by all state taxpayers rather than county residents. There are several advantages with these arrangements as jail operations are consolidated into a smaller number of centrally managed facilities. Moreover, as these places fall under the auspices of the state’s Corrections Department, there is likely to be more operational consistency than stand-alone facilities lacking state jail standards. State-level correctional arrangements also reduces political interference in jail operations.

Deteriorating physical plants

Many rural jails are overcrowded or aging structures, and Ruddell and Mays found the average rural jail in their study was over 40 years old.^[38] As a result, many need to be refurbished, expanded, or relocated although these options may not be economically feasible or politically acceptable. While many counties have replaced their antiquated jails with newer facilities, hundreds of aging jails are still in service. Some are showing wear and tear from high population turnover rates as well as vandalism, neglect, and the lack of on-going preventative maintenance; this again relates to funding. Older facilities are also expensive to operate given their high rates of energy consumption, and outdated architectural designs are not as safe as modern designs, therefore requiring more officers to provide adequate inmate supervision. This may be one reason the smallest counties in a study conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts had among the highest per resident jail costs.^[39] Whereas modernizing, expanding, or rebuilding these facilities may be desirable to jail administrators, the Vera Institute of Justice claims that communities should instead invest in policies that reduce incarceration rates.^[40]

Managing crowding

A 2006 survey of rural sheriffs and jail administrators reveals that facility overcrowding was one of the top five problems they confronted.^[41] Although information from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reports the average facility under 100 beds operates at less than full capacity, national averages do not identify facilities that are perpetually crowded.^[42] Moreover, while the average daily population is a good comparative benchmark, it does not account for weekend or seasonal population admissions spikes.

Crowding has negative implications for the physical plant as well as resident and staff safety. Jail crowding may increase misconduct or violence because of an inability to separate violent and non-violent residents, a reduced number of structured activities such as work placements and increasing the number of inmates a single officer must supervise.^[43] Surveys of jail administrators also reveal that residents in crowded facilities are also more likely to attempt suicide.^[44] Furthermore, managing crowding places high demands on the time, resources, and creativity of the agency personnel, which is usually at the expense of rehabilitative efforts.

The failed potential of regionalization

Ruddell and Mays observe “regionalization occurs when a number of jurisdictions combine their operations into a single jail. There are a number of benefits associated with regionalization, although the primary rationale is financial, as these arrangements enable the justice system to take advantage of economies of scale that reduce operational costs.”^[45] As regional jails are larger than the facilities they replace, their size enables them to be more responsive to the changing needs, populations, and priorities of the justice system. Despite those advantages, regionalization is a concept that is popular in theory, but the practice has not caught on. In fact, most jurisdictions where regionalization took place only happened after state governments provided financial incentives to consolidate these operations.^[46] Any jail reform is apt to generate negative outcomes, and regionalization increases transportation costs, makes it difficult for families to visit their loved ones, and is inconvenient for justice system professionals, including the inmates’ attorneys.

Lack of gender responsive jail programming

Between 2005 and 2019 the nation’s female jail population increased by 17 percent while the male population dropped 4.5 percent: in 2019 women accounted for 15 percent of all jail residents.^[47] Much of this growth in women’s incarceration has occurred in small counties.^[48] Because almost all jails are co-ed facilities and women represent such a small proportion of a facility’s population, they often receive health care or rehabilitative interventions that are designed for men and do not consider the distinctive pathways to women’s incarceration, including the likelihood that most are suffering from trauma from prior victimization.^[49] Swavola, Riley, and Subramanian observe that “With limited resources, jails are often ill equipped to address the challenges women face when they enter the justice system, which can have serious and lasting public safety and community health implications.”^[50] Thus, it appears we have not made much progress since McGuirl called incarcerated women a forgotten population almost a half century ago.^[51]

Failing to take advantage of technology

Technology has been playing an increasingly important role in corrections: from communicating with the public through department websites and social media, and by increasing inmate and staff safety using scanners, body worn cameras, drones, and closed-circuit television.^[52] Introducing video arraignments, utilizing Zoom and similar applications for attorney-inmate meetings, and inmate videophone for family contact can reduce jail costs and increase family engagement. Researchers from the Pew Research Center also believe these “tele-justice” applications increase the courts’ ability to manage cases remotely, which may, in turn, reduce pre-trial incarceration in rural counties.^[53] Residents of some jails are also able to use computer applications called kiosks to enable them to find information, arrange commissary purchases, or arrange video visitation.^[54]

Moreover, telemedicine has long been used in some jurisdictions to provide physical and mental health consultations, although only a fraction of jails are utilizing this technology.^[55] Altogether, incorporating technology into everyday jail operations enables small facilities to lower costs and enhance safety and security. For example, the more an agency can reduce the number of times an inmate leaves the facility, the easier it is to maintain the security envelope. In addition, technology allows for better staff utilization and reduces transportation costs. Like other issues addressed in this section, however, utilizing technology can be expensive and the up-front costs may be prohibitive for some small agencies.

A lack of alternatives to incarceration

There has been increased interest in reducing the number of people admitted to jails, and this has happened in four ways. First, between 2019 and 2021 reformist district attorneys were elected throughout the country on promises to reduce pretrial incarceration. Second, consistent with that goal a growing number of jurisdictions are eliminating cash bail for minor offences.^[56] Thirdly, a growing number of large jurisdictions are increasing the use of diversionary programs or pretrial supervision to reduce jail admissions, although some commentators have observed that rural counties are often unable to implement these programs.^[57] Lastly, some large counties are introducing sobering centers to reduce the number of jail admissions of intoxicated people; this intervention reduced jail admissions by one-half in Houston.^[58] A U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics study reveals that since death by intoxication in jails of 50 or fewer beds is three times the national average for all jails, placing these individuals in alternative facilities may be safer for them.^[59]

Jail personnel are also supervising pretrial detainees and people serving sentences in the community. For example, of the nearly 800,000 jail inmates in 2019, less than 50,000 were supervised in the community in weekender programs, electronic monitoring, home detention, day reporting, community service, pretrial supervision, and other work or treatment programs.^[60] While these approaches to reducing populations are conceptually appealing and less expensive than incarceration, the proportion of jail inmates participating in community-based alternatives decreased by 37 percent between 2005 and 2019.^[61] Thus, it seems as though jail administrators are not taking advantage of these methods of reducing incarceration although the small populations of some rural jails may be a barrier to implementing these programs. Oppel suggests that another reason for failing to implement these programs in rural counties is that the population tends to be more conservative and prefers that pretrial detainees are behind bars, rather than living in the community.^[62]

Reliance upon holding individuals for other jurisdictions

There is a long history of rural jails holding pretrial detainees and prisoners for the federal government^[63] and since the 9/11 attacks hundreds of counties expanded their jail capacities to house immigration detainees, inmates from other counties, as well as state and federal prisoners.^[64] Copp and Bales observe that “many rural facilities have added capacity to take in out-of-county boarders... [and] the influx of state prisoners and undocumented immigrants has brought in money to help sustain struggling jurisdictions.”^[65] Kang-Brown and Subramanian report that 84% of U.S. jails hold inmates for other authorities, and some jails rent out more beds than they use for their county’s arrestees.^[66] While taking these steps enables sheriffs to modernize or expand their jail operations, some counties added too much capacity and cannot fill their empty beds, which has provided a poor return on their investment in incarceration.^[67]

A growing number of county jails are contracting with state governments to hold their prisoners, and this practice has been supported by federal rural economic development funding.^[68] The problem is that few jail operations have the rehabilitative infrastructure to keep long-term residents constructively occupied, either through recreational or rehabilitative programming. One of the perennial problems in jails is the lack of opportunities for residents to constructively occupy their time, and consistent with that observation researchers examining the surveys of almost 7,000 U.S. jail inmates found that individuals who spent more time watching TV or working had fewer rule violations, including violent misconduct.^[69] A lack of programming may be one reason why assault and misconduct levels increased in these facilities after they started housing more state prisoners.^[70]

Managing jail violence

Given the population turnover and the high proportion of special needs inmates—including persons with serious mental illnesses and gang members—both inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-staff assault rates in some facilities are high, although these assaults may be less frequent in jails located in suburban and rural counties.^[71] These acts have also increased in jail facilities that are holding prisoners for state corrections departments.^[72] One limitation in understanding the scope of the jail violence problem is a lack of national-level estimates of these offences, although anecdotal accounts suggest these acts are seldom reported. The federal government surveys incarcerated people about sexual harassment and victimization, and their researchers found rates of substantiated incidents are higher in jails than in prisons.^[73]

Rehabilitating jail inmates

Few jails offer extensive rehabilitative programs as about two-thirds of their residents are not sentenced but are awaiting their next court appearances.^[74] Of the jails offering work programs, most are based on doing unskilled chores within the living units—such as cleaning—or vocational training in the kitchen or laundry. In jails where they are offered, rehabilitative programs are often based on counseling (including substance abuse treatment), education, and developing vocational skills.^[75] Given their short sentences and their low numbers in the population few rural jails offer rehabilitative opportunities. Even when these programs are offered, rural jail inmates reported they lacked rehabilitative resources in the facility and these shortfalls remained once they returned to the community.^[76]

One emerging approach to delivering low-cost jail programming is using closed-circuit television to deliver inspirational messages and information about grief, self-esteem, gender roles, substance abuse, job readiness and earning general equivalency diplomas.^[77] Failing to address the unmet needs of these individuals does little to inhibit their recidivism, and some frequent utilizers are returned to local jails dozens of times, and they also tend to place inordinate demands on emergency services.^[78] As the adage goes, this is doing “life on the installment plan.” Although rural jail personnel try to develop and deliver meaningful programs, they often lack the funding, staffing, and public support needed to deliver these initiatives. In order to supplement the efforts of their staff, some rural jail administrators solicit help from Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and religious groups to provide programing and supports to residents.

Lack of community re-entry programs

While about one-third of jail residents are sentenced, we know little about their long-term outcomes once released. Average jail sentences are short, and many inmates will earn an early release, although there are no standard policies on the amount of time they serve.^[79] As a result, only a small proportion of jail residents receive meaningful rehabilitative interventions while incarcerated. Even fewer jails have formal community re-entry programs to provide ongoing support for these individuals. In their study of rural Tennessee jails Miller and Miller observe the following barriers to implementing these re-entry programs, including:

Few professional service vendors and treatment providers from whom to choose, resulting in more generalized versus specialized expertise, greater travel times leading to higher total costs, and less time for individualized counselling sessions which, in turn, encourages efficiency approaches such as increased reliance on group treatment and dosage intensification through merging intervention components to cover more material in less time and fewer sessions.^[80]

Although many jail administrators may see community reentry programs as falling outside their scope of services, some individuals leaving the jail require supports to prevent their recidivism. Consequently, an investment in reentry programs may reduce recidivism and reduce the jail’s population over the long term.

Emerging external threats

Jails are often the hub of a rural county’s justice system and are typically adjacent to the local courthouse. Whereas ensuring the safety and security of these facilities has traditionally focused on internal threats such as riots or escapes, the protests carried out by groups opposing government legitimacy suggests jail administrators take steps to prevent external threats, such as assaults on these facilities. While the 2020-2021 riots and protests were directed at urban facilities, including the January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, there is a long history of rural anarchist movements and forward-looking jail administrators and sheriffs are preparing for potential risks by establishing policies and procedures to deal with these threats and by increasing internal and perimeter security. Sturgeon observes that “Correctional facilities must begin preparing to manage a new type of inmate who holds the belief that you represent the government that they are trying to replace and, therefore, correctional officials, and the courts, have no authority over them. They will resist in every way possible.”^[81]

Abiding by jail standards

Both the federal and state governments require that incarcerated people receive levels of care that are constitutionally appropriate, although there is little agreement on what constitutes cruel and unusual treatment when it comes to local corrections. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s public interest attorneys and advocacy organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union were able to work toward improving jail and prison conditions using class action lawsuits to force correctional facilities to provide more humane care, although these efforts were later hamstrung by the passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act in 1996, which limited the ability of inmates to launch lawsuits to improve their living conditions. While efforts to reform local and state corrections are ongoing, some incarcerated individuals receive care that does not meet their needs. Agencies delivering this inadequate care are at increased jeopardy of litigation and Schlanger found that the top three sources of jail lawsuits were medical care, the inappropriate use of force, and personal injury.^[82]

In addition to abiding constitutional requirements and federal legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, more than one-half of states have established formal jail standards, although abiding by these standards is sometimes voluntary and there can be a lack of state oversight in these operations.^[83] Worsley and Memmer point out, for instance, that in about half the states with standards there is no enforcement mechanism to ensure that jails will follow the guidelines.^[84] As a result, there appears to be few downsides in failing to comply with by state-level standards in most states.

One mechanism that has been used to improve the care of incarcerated people is requiring that local correctional facilities holding inmates for the federal government

(including immigration detainees), or for state governments, to be accredited with the American Correctional Association (ACA), creating a powerful incentive for jails to become accredited. Accreditation indicates compliance with a set of national standards and the ACA highlights the advantages of becoming accredited including improving staff training, program development, contributing to a safer environment, and cheaper liability insurance.^[85] In contrast with those claims, Senator Elizabeth Warren has been critical of ACA accreditation and calls the process unreliable and a “rubber stamp.” Warren contends there are conflicts of interests in the accreditation process as the ACA promotes the privatization of corrections as well as accredits those facilities.^[86]

Recruiting jail personnel

Writing about jails, Paoline and Lambert observe that “staff are the heart and soul of these institutions,” and “Satisfied, committed staff, who do not suffer from undue job stress, are critical in ensuring that a jail is successful, whereas highly stressed, unhappy, and uncommitted staff can result in disaster.”^[87] While some rural jails attract highly motivated and skilled personnel, many rural counties draw from a very shallow labor pool, and it is difficult to attract out-of-town employees if the jail offers low salaries. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that average annual salaries are lower for local corrections compared with state and federal prison staff, and workers in California and the Northeastern states received higher salaries than jail personnel working in the South or Midwest.^[88] Rural jails can also have a familiarity problem that has to be acknowledged and managed. Because there is a great chance the staff will know the inmates, and may even be related to some of them, there exists the potential for favoritism that can lead to management and security problems.

Retaining jail officers

Although training and mentoring can build the jail officer’s knowledge, skills, and abilities it may be difficult to retain them after they developed their expertise, and rural agencies often lose employees to other correctional or law enforcement employers.^[89] This can be problematic and Leip and Stinchcomb point out that in jails with 100 or fewer beds, losing several employees “can have sizable fiscal and operational implications.”^[90] One of the limitations in our understanding of employee turnover in rural jails is that most research has been conducted in large jails. Although scholars have generally found that factors such as organizational commitment and job satisfaction are tied with turnover intention, salaries and career opportunities also matter. Consequently, two reasons for turnover in rural jails are that salaries are higher in state or federal corrections, and there are defined career ladders and formal promotion boards. Consequently, there is more potential for career mobility and promotion as compared with opportunities in a small, stand-alone facility.

Risks to jail officers

Although the greatest fear expressed by most jail personnel is being assaulted on the job their risks of being killed are relatively low.^[91] Many of the characteristics of rural jails, with high rates of inmate turnover, a lack of activities to constructively occupy the inmates, and a high proportion of inmates with special needs have the potential for higher violence levels. However, there are few studies confirming that proposition, as there are no national-level data on inmate-on-staff assaults in local corrections. The risks of psychological injuries, however, are high and many correctional personnel are suffering from mental health problems that are shaped by their on-the-job experiences. Jaegers and colleagues, for example, found that over one-half of jail officers in the Midwest were suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.^[92] Those findings were very similar to those reported by Canadian researchers who surveyed thousands of correctional officers about their psychological well-being.^[93] Lastly, the deaths of jail personnel from COVID-19 throughout America have drawn our attention to their risks of contracting communicable diseases.^[94]

Admitting juveniles into adult jails

Although the federal government has provided financial incentives for counties to remove juveniles from adult jails since the 1970s, approximately 2,900 juveniles were held in these facilities on the last weekday of June 2019. Using the same methodology as Zeng and Minton for calculating adult admissions we estimate that approximately 50,000 juveniles pass through adult jails in any year.^[95] While some are charged as adults or transferred from juvenile courts, all of them are vulnerable to emotional, physical, and sexual victimization from their adult counterparts and this might also raise their risks of self-harm or suicide.^[96]

Rural jails may hold a higher proportion of these young people because few sparsely populated counties operate juvenile detention centers. Like other elements of rural justice systems, the lack of alternatives makes jails the default option to house these youth. This has implications for their well-being. As separate juvenile units are not available, some youth are placed in solitary confinement to separate them from adult residents, and that practice might increase their risks of developing mental health problems or engaging in acts of self-harm or suicide.^[97] Although adults receive few rehabilitative opportunities, some long-term detainees held as adults may receive programing from the local school district if they have Individual Educational Plans.

Discussion

The Vera Institute of Justice observes that rural jails are at a crisis point and long-term entrenched problems such as crowding, rising incarceration rates, and managing special needs populations with inadequate funding defies an easy solution.^[98] Although these issues have been reported for generations, jail scholars have become so accustomed to these shortcomings they are no longer shocking. Over a century ago, Louis Robinson called jails “a serious menace to the community” and advocated for the consolidation of jail operations, suggesting that 500 to 1,000 bed facilities operated by state authorities—rather than county officials—would be safer, more humane, and rehabilitative.^[99] Robinson’s calls for reform may be as unpopular today as they were in 1915. This is because reducing our reliance on jails at the county-level is opposed by many stakeholders, the foremost being county sheriffs, who would relinquish some of their autonomy, influence, and status if jails were consolidated. Moreover, consolidating local jails would also increase some law enforcement costs, including the need to transport arrestees further distances to the jail itself, and afterwards to attend their court appearances.

In many respects the 20 challenges we identified are interconnected, and a lack of adequate funding is a key issue underlying most of these problems. Yet, even if funding were increased, it is unlikely that personnel in a 50-bed jail could develop and deliver cost-effective intervention programs for a relatively small number of special needs inmates or offer comprehensive rehabilitative programs for a dozen sentenced residents. The problem is that small, stand-alone facilities cannot take advantage of the economies of scale for delivering evidence-based correctional interventions given their population characteristics. When jail operations are consolidated, however, it becomes practical to develop units offering interventions for persons with mental health or substance abuse problems, and it becomes economically feasible to develop diversionary, pretrial, and community re-entry programs.

There has been increasing awareness about the relationships between jails and the community, and whether high jail incarceration rates disrupt community functioning. This may, in turn, increase crime and the use of incarceration. Weidner and Schultz observe that “high levels of neighborhood incarceration can be detrimental to the social ecology of communities by damaging social capital and interfering with the kinds of family and social networks that are required for sustaining community’s well-being as well as individuals’ mental health.” ^[100] While jail administrators may not pay much attention to what is happening in their community, when families and friendship networks are no longer able to informally regulate behavior, crime will increase, and this places additional demands on the entire criminal justice system, including local corrections.

Conclusions

Ruddell and Mays argue that the long-term solutions to the structural shortcomings of rural jails are political in nature and require local governments to re-evaluate the need for these small, stand-alone facilities.^[101] In many respects the United States is an outlier in the use of local corrections, as most developed nations hold pretrial detainees in correctional facilities funded by state or federal governments. It is unlikely, however, that state governments want to assume the $25 billion costs for local corrections.^[102] Regionalizing jail services might be an option in some places, although legislators would need to create incentives to reduce the number of county jails. This leaves local governments with few viable alternative options to operating these facilities.

As rural jails have historically been out-of-sight and out-of-mind their administrators must now comply with growing demands during an era when county budgets are stretched thin or shrinking. At the same time, all operations of the justice system are highly scrutinized and mistakes or misconduct taking place in local corrections can quickly become headline news and a costly expense for local governments. In this paper we outlined 20 lingering issues that plague small jails, and hope that researchers use our observations to examine these issues more closely and search for solutions to America’s rural jail crisis.

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^[1] Rick Ruddell, University of Regina

^[2] G. Larry Mays, New Mexico State University

^[3] William Sturgeon, Independent Researcher

^[4] Rick Ruddell, G Larry Mays, and L Thomas Winfree Jr, Contemporary Corrections (Routledge, 2021) 174.

^[5] Hannah Pagel, ‘Sheriffs: We can’t ‘arrest our way out of the rural drug problem,’ Agri-Pulse (Web Page, 20 January 2021) < https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/15065-rural-america-needs-opioid-crisis-intervention-courts-they-save-lives >.

^[6] Kim Parker et al, What Unites and Divides Urban, Suburban and Rural Communities (Pew Research Center, 22 May 2018) 16.

^[7] Brandon Applegate and Alicia Sitren, ‘The Jail and the Community: Comparing Jails in Rural and Urban Contexts’ (2008) 88(2) The Prison Journal 252, 264.

^[8] Vera Institute of Justice, ‘People in Jail in 2019’ Vera Institute of Justice (Web page, December 2020) < https://www.vera.org/publications/people-in-jail-in-2019>.

^[9] Fishman, Joseph, Crucibles of Crime: The Shocking Story of the American Jail (Patterson Smith, 1923).

^[10] Jessica Pishco, ‘When a Sheriff’s Jail is Emptied’ The Appeal (Web page, 24 January 2020) < https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/sheriffs-and-bail-reform-the-badge/>.

^[11] Jennifer E Copp and William D Bales, ‘Jails and Local Justice System Reform’ (2018) 28(1) The Future of Children 103, 117-18.

^[12] Zhen Zeng and Todd D Minton, Jail Inmates in 2019 (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, March 2021) 1.

^[13] Ibid 8.

^[14] Melissa A Kowalski et al, ‘Jails in the Time of Coronavirus’ Corrections: Policy, Practice and Research (2020) Corrections: Policy, Practice and Research 1, 5, DOI: 10.1080/23774657.2020.1834471.

^[15] Rick Ruddell and G Larry Mays, ‘Trouble in the Heartland: Challenges Confronting Rural Jails’ (2011) 1(1) International Journal of Rural Criminology 105, 111,

^[16] Edith Abbott, The One Hundred and One County Jails in Illinois and why they Ought to be Abolished (Juvenile Protective Association, 1916); Nina Kinsella, ‘County Jails and the Federal Government’ (1933) 24(2) Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 428; Louis N Robinson, ‘Solution of the Jail Problem’ (1915) 6(1) Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 101.

^[17] John Irwin, The Jail: Managing the Underclass in American Society (University of California Press, 1985); Paul A Katsampes, ‘A National Strategy for Change in Rural Jails’ in SD Cronk (ed), Criminal Justice in Rural America (National Institute of Justice, 1982) 231; Dennis A Kimme, The Nature of New Small Jails: Report and Analysis (National Institute of Corrections, 1985); Ken Kerle ‘The Rural Jail: Its People, Problems and Solutions’ in SD Cronk (ed), Criminal Justice in Rural America (National Institute of Justice, 1982); Ken Kerle, American Jails: Looking to the Future (Butterworth Heinemann, 1998).

^[18] Roy Casey, ‘Catchall Jails’ (1954) 193(1) Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 28, 30.

^[19] Ruddell, Mays, and Winfree Jr (n 1) 175.

^[20] Alyssa L Raggio, Norman G Hoffmann and Albert M Kopak, ‘Results from a comprehensive assessment of behavioral health problems among rural jail inmates’ (2017) 56(3) Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 217, 225-26.

^[21] Ruddell, Mays, and Winfree Jr (n 1) 175.

^[22] E. Fuller Torrey, The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey (Treatment Advocacy Center, 8 April 2014) 6.

^[23] Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Detention, Report and Recommendations (Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration, 2020) 8.

^[24] Ibid 43.

^[25] Lauren Jones, Sandra van den Heuvel and Amanda Lawson, The Cost of Incarceration in New York State (Vera Institute of Justice, January 2021) 8.

^[26] E Ann Carson and Mary P Cowhig, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000 to 2016 (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 12 February 2020); National Institute of Mental Health, Suicide (Web page, January 2021) < https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide.shtml#part_154969 >.

^[27] Margaret E Noonan, Mortality in Local Jails and State Prisons, 2000-2010 – Statistical Table (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2012) 5. See also Christine Tartaro and Rick Ruddell, ‘Trouble in Mayberry: A National Analysis of Suicides and Attempts in Small Jails’ (2006) 31(1) American Journal of Criminal Justice 81.

^[28] Rick Ruddell and G Larry Mays, ‘Rural jails: Problematic inmates, overcrowded cells, and cash-strapped counties’ (2007) 35(3) Journal of Criminal Justice 251, 256-7.

^[29] Jennifer Bronson, Laura M Maruschak and Marcus Berzofsky, Disabilities Among Prison and Jail Inmates, 2011-2012 (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2015) 1; Laura M Maruschak, Medical Problems of Jail Inmates (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2006) 1.

^[30] Carson and Cowhig (n 23) 5.

^[31] Noonan (n 24) 5.

^[32] Robert R Weidner and Jennifer Schultz, ‘Examining the Relationship Between Incarceration and Population Health: The Roles of Region and Urbanicity’ (2021) 32(4) Criminal Justice Policy Review 403, 417; See also, Sandhya Kajeepeta et al, ‘Association Between County Jail Incarceration and Cause-Specific County Mortality in the USA, 1987-2017: A Retrospective, Longitudinal Study’ (2021) 6(4) Lancet 240.

^[33] Vera Institute of Justice, ‘Guidance for prevention and responsive measures to coronavirus for rural justice systems’, Vera Institute of Justice (Web page, 24 March 2020) <https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/coronavirus-guidance-rural-justice-systems.pdf>.

^[34] John Cheves, ‘Thousands of People Infected as Overcrowded KY Jails Create ‘Reservoirs for COVID’’, Lexington Herald Leader (Web page, 29 January 2021). <https://www.kentucky.com/news/coronavirus/article248757880.html>.

^[35] Jacob Kang-Brown and Ram Subramanian, Out of Sight: The Growth of Jails in Rural America (Vera Institute of Justice, June 2017) 11.

^[36] Mark Levin and Michael Haugen, Open Roads and Overflowing Jails: Addressing High Rates of Rural Pretrial Incarceration (Texas Public Policy Foundation, May 2018) 3.

^[37] Rachael W Riley et al, ‘Exploring the urban-rural incarceration divide: Drivers of local jail incarceration rates in the United States’ (2018) 36(1) Journal of Technology in Human Services 76, 84.

^[38] Ruddell and Mays (n 25) 254.

^[39] Pew Charitable Trusts, ‘Local Spending on Corrections Tops $35 Billion in Latest Nationwide Data’, Pew Charitable Trusts (Web page, 29 January 2021) 9 < https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2021/01/local-spending-on-jails-tops-$25-billion-in-latest-nationwide-data >.

^[40] Vera Institute of Justice, ‘Reducing the use of Jails’, (Web page, 2020) < https://www.vera.org/ending-mass-incarceration/reducing-the-use-of-jails > .

^[41] Rick Ruddell and G Larry Mays (n 25) 251.

^[42] Zeng and Minton (n 9) 7.

^[43] Jared M Ellison, Benhamin Steiner and Emily M Wright, ‘Examining the Sources of Violent Victimization Among Jail Inmates’ (2018) 45(11) Criminal Justice and Behavior 1723, 1728.

^[44] Tartaro and Ruddell (n 24) 81.

^[45] Ruddell and Mays (n 12) 117. Also see, cf Erik Alda, ‘Does Size Influence Jail Efficiency? An Analysis of Local Jails in the United States’ (2020) Corrections: Policy, Practice and Research, DOI 10.1080/23774657.2020.1731725

^[46] Jim Dennis, ‘Cooperation works: Six Ohio jurisdictions join forces to create regional jail’ (1998) 60(6) Corrections Today 128.

^[47] Zeng and Minton (n 9) 6.

^[48] Elizabeth Swavola, Kristi Riley and Ram Subramanian, Overlooked: Women and Jails in an Era of Reform (Vera Institute of Justice, 2016) 6.

^[49] Dana DeHart, ‘Women’s pathways to crime: A heuristic typology of offenders’ (2018) 45(10) Criminal Justice and Behavior 1461, 1472.

^[50] Swavola et al, (n 45) 7.

^[51] Marlene C McGuirl, ‘The Forgotten Population: Women in Prison’ (1975) 32(4) The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 338.

^[52] National Institute of Corrections, Technology in Corrections (US National Institute of Corrections, 2020).

^[53] Janna Anderson, Lee Rainie and Emily A Vogels, ‘Experts Say the ‘New Normal’ in 2025 will be far More Tech-Driven, Presenting more Big Challenges’ Pew Research Center (Web page, 18 February 2021)

< https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/02/18/experts-say-the-new-normal-in-2025-will-be-far-more-tech-driven-presenting-more-big-challenges/ >.

^[54] Kiosk Information Systems. ‘Government and Inmate Kiosk Systems’, Kiosk Information Systems (Web page, 2021) < https://kiosk.com/market-solutions/government-kiosks/ >.

^[55] Martin Krsak et al, ‘Access to Specialty Services: Opportunities for Expansion of Telemedicine to Support Correctional Health Care in Colorado’ (2020) 26(6) Telemedicine and e-health 776.

^[56] Copp and Bales (n 8) 118-19.

^[57] Richard A Oppel, ‘A Cesspool of a Dungeon: The Surging Population of Rural Jails’ New York Times (online, 2019) < https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/us/rural-jails.html >.

^[58] Suzanne V Jarvis et al, ‘Public Intoxication: Sobering Centers as an Alternative to Incarceration, Houston, 2010-2017’ (2019) 109(4) American Journal of Public Health 597, 598.

^[59] Noonan (n 24) 5.

^[60] Zeng and Minton (n 9) 9.

^[61] Zeng and Minton (n 9) 9.

^[62] Oppel (n 54).

^[63] Fishman (n 6); Kinsella (n 13)

^[64] Kang-Brown and Subramanian (n 32) 13-14.

^[65] Copp and Bales (n 8) 107.

^[66] Kang-Brown and Subramanian (n 32) 14.

^[67] Anna Duan, ‘Beds for Rent: Economic Motives Behind Rural Jail Growth Since 1970’, Macksey Journal (Web page, 30 April 2020) <https://www.mackseysymposium.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=virtual2020>.

^[68] Jack Norton and Jacob Kang-Brown, Federal Farm Aid for the Big House (Vera Institute of Justice, 22 October 2018).

^[69] Mateja Vuk and Dalibor Dolezal, ‘Idleness and Inmate Misconduct: A New Perspective on Time Use and Behavior in Local Jails’ (2020) 41(11) Deviant Behavior 1347.

^[70] Ryan M. Labrecque, ‘Interpersonal Violence and Institutional Misconduct in the Los Angeles County Jail System: A Mixed Method Investigation’ (2021) International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X21990834

^[71] Christine Tartaro and Marissa P Levy, ‘Density, inmate assaults, and direct supervision jails’ (2007) 18(4) Criminal Justice Policy Review 395, 412.

^[72] Jonathan W Caudill et al, ‘Correctional Destabilization and Jail Violence: The Consequences of Prison Depopulation Legislation’ (2014) 42(6) Journal of Criminal Justice 500, 503.

^[73] Ramona R Rantala, Sexual Victimization Reported by Adult Correctional Authorities, 2012-15 (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, July 2018) 9.

^[74] Zeng and Minton (n 9) 6.

^[75] Applegate and Sitren (n 4) 264.

^[76] John M Keesler et al, ‘If we can Feel Like we Have Purpose and we Belong – Exploring the Experiences of Drug-Involved Individuals in a Rural Jail’ (2020) 38(4) Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly 484.

^[77] Julie D Garman et al, ‘Bringing Jails into the Twenty-First Centry: Evaluating Jail TV as a Method of Programming’ (2020) Corrections: Policy, Practice and Research, DOI: 10.1080/23774657.2020.1742248.

^[78] National Association of Counties, ‘Identifying high utilizers’, National Association of Counties (Web page, 2019) <https://www.naco.org/resources/index/identifying-high-utilizers>.

^[79] Lara Hoffman, ‘Separate but Unequal – When Overcrowded: Sex Discrimination in Jail Early Release Policies’ (2009) 15(3) William and Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice 591.

^[80] J Mitchell Miller and Holly Ventura Miller, ‘Treating Dually Diagnosed Offenders in Rural Settings: Profile of the Middle Tennessee Rural Reentry Program’ (2017) 42(2) American Journal of Criminal Justice 389, 391.

^[81] William Sturgeon, ‘Is your Facility Prepared for Future Challenges?’, Corrections.Com (Web page, 18 January 2021) <http://www.corrections.com/news/article/51709-is-your-facility-prepared-for-future-challenges>

^[82] Margo Schlanger, ‘Inmate Litigation’ (2003) 116 Harvard Law Review 1555, 1704.

^[83] William Patrick, ‘State Jail Standards can’t Protect Employees, Prisoners’, Palestine Herald-Press (Web page, 1 August 2018) < https://www.palestineherald.com/columnists/state-jail-standards-cant-protect-employees-prisoners/article_469db654-95c8-11e8-9ffc-cf893ca83a5c.html >

^[84] Melanie K Worsley and Amy Memmer, ‘Transparency Behind Bars: A History of Kansas Jail Inspections, Current Practices, and Possible Reform’ (2017) 1(2) Journal of Criminal Justice and Law 71, 85.

^[85] American Correctional Association, Standards (Web page, 2019) <http://www.aca.org/ACA_Prod_IMIS/ACA_Member/Standards_and_Accreditation/StandardsInfo_Home.aspx> .

^[86] Elizabeth Warren, The Accreditation Con: A Broken Prison and Detention Facility Accreditation System that puts Profits over People (Book, on1226781297, 16 December 2020) 2.

^[87] Eugene A Paoline and Eric G Lambert, ‘Exploring Potential Consequences of Job Involvement Among Jail Staff’ (2012) 23(3) Criminal Justice Policy Review 233, 247.

^[88] US Bureau of Labor Statistics, ‘Correctional Officers and Bailiffs’, US Bureau of Labor Statistics (Web page, 2020) <https://www.bls.gov/ooh/protective-service/correctional-officers.htm#tab-5>; See also: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, ‘Occupational Employment Statistics’, US Bureau of Labor Statistics (Web page, 2020) <https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333012.htm#st>.

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^[95] Zeng and Minton (n 9) 1.

^[96] Campaign for Youth Justice, Jailing Juveniles: The Dangers of Incarcerating Youth in Adult Jails in America (Campaign for Youth Justice, November 2007) 4.

^[97] Tamar R Birckhead ‘Children in Isolation: The Solitary Confinement of Youth’ (2015) 50(1) Wake Forest Law Review 1, 6.

^[98] Vera Institute of Justice (n 37).

^[99] Robinson (n 13) 101.

^[100] Robert R Weidner and Jennifer Schultz, ‘Examining the Relationship Between Incarceration and Population Health: The Roles of Region and Urbanicity’ (2020) 32(4) Criminal Justice Policy Review 403, 407-408.

^[101] Ruddell and Mays (n 12) 124-25.

^[102] Pew Charitable Trusts, Local Spending on Corrections tops $25 Billion in Latest Nationwide Data (Pew Charitable Trusts, 29 January 2021) 1.